High school boys cross country preview

Drew Costelow’s first season of high school cross country overlapped with Center Grove’s run to history.

What the sophomore and his teammates do now is anybody’s guess.

Making the program’s first state finals appearance, the Trojans finished 14th at the LaVern Gibson course in Terre Haute. Others runners representing Center Grove that November day included returnees Raef Sauer, a junior, and sophomores Parker Mimbela and Jarret Rockwell.

The Trojans are young and experienced at the same time.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

“When we were younger, we never really thought about being on varsity together, but you could see the first couple weeks of practice that the freshmen really had a good competition level,” Costelow said. “The goal this year would be to finish in the top five now that we have a good idea what the state course is like.”

Such a lofty objective, while realistic, was dealt a blow when another soph-to-be, Ty Garrett, the 22nd-place finisher at state, moved with his family to Colorado.

This presents an opportunity for others to step up, whether that be senior Aidan Galt, soph Griffin Hennessy, one of the freshmen or someone else.

Galt, who took 14th individually in helping Center Grove capture the sectional in 2019, then helped his squad secure runner-up status at the Shelbyville Semistate two weeks later, believes the Trojans will remain formidable.

“Obviously, Ty is a special friend of ours, but we’ve made it clear the goals are the same. I think top five at state is definitely attainable,” said Galt, one of the program’s four seniors. “Our secret weapon is our number 3 through 7 runners are pretty close in times right now.

“Coach (Howard Harrell) rallied the troops and, if anything, it’s motivated us to do better.”

Costelow finished fourth at both sectional and regional as a freshman before battling to a 15th-place effort in horrid weather conditions at semistate. He was slowed by the flu the week of the state finals and wasn’t able to finish the race.

Mimbela (138th at state), Rockwell (140th) and Sauer (152nd) gained valuable experience on the biggest of stages.

“One of the first things we said is that we have high goals and we’re not changing them. If everyone steps it up, we’ll be fine,” Harrell said. “We have team leaders. Aidan is a senior, Raef is a junior and Drew is a sophomore.

“It is a little odd that a sophomore would be one of the leaders, but Drew is a very positive person. When he says, ‘good job’ or ‘follow me,’ people stick to it.”

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Scouting the county” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Center Grove Trojans

Coach: Howard Harrell

Last season: Runner-up at Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference meet, won Johnson County, sectional and regional; runner-up at Shelbyville Semistate and 14th at state meet

Key returnees: Aidan Galt, senior; Raef Sauer and Brody Shadle, juniors; Drew Costelow, Griffin Hennessy, Parker Mimbela and Jarret Rockwell, sophomores

Top newcomers: Levi Farmer, sophomore; Kyle Montgomery and Gavin Rockwell, freshmen

Outlook: The Trojans are in position to put together a second straight history-making season with four runners returning from a squad that took 14th at the 2019 state meet. Costelow could emerge as the pace-setter though Sauer, Jarret Rockwell, Mimbela, Hennessy and Galt provide plenty of competiton. “We’ve got a lot of momentum, but now there’s not as much room for error,” Harrell said, referring to sophomore Ty Garrett moving away during the summer. “Everybody needs to be on. In cross country, the top five runners score, so now the No. 6 is No. 5, and so on. The competition has gone up.”

Edinburgh Lancers

Coach: Amy Schilling

Key returnee: Parker Young, junior

Top newcomers: Noah Detling, senior; Ethan Campbell and Walker Smith, freshmen

Franklin Grizzly Cubs

Coach: Adam Schwartz

Last season: Won Mid-State Conference meet; runner-up at Johnson County meet, sectional and regional, 11th at Shelbyville Semistate

Key returnees: Ben Deane, Anthony McDonald and Garrett Mills, seniors; Jared Stayte, junior; Jaden Crisafulli and Ty Murphy, sophomores

Outlook: The Grizzly Cubs were hit hard by graduation and also lost senior Ethan Pheifer (eighth at both sectional and regional) to football. They bring back McDonald, among others. “They’re all good kids and hard workers,” Schwartz said. “We want to see individual improvement and be competitive in the conference.”

Greenwood Woodmen

Coach: Scott New

Last season: Fifth in Mid-State Conference meet, fourth at Johnson County meet and Franklin Sectional, fifth at regional and 19th at Shelbyville Semistate

Key returnees: Noah McCracken, senior; Hunter Gellof, C.J. Meyer and Conner Watson, juniors; John Gries, sophomore

Top newcomers: Tre Stone, senior; Sam Grimes, Nick VanBibber, freshmen

Outlook: Watson, who finished 15th at sectional and 19th at regional as a sophomore, returns for what could be even more of a breakthrough campaign. McCracken is also varsity tested for a program bolstered by the arrival of Stone, a former Beech Grove runner who took 20th at last year’s Mt. Vernon Sectional. “I’ve got high hopes because we qualified for semistate last year,” New said. “I don’t want to set the bar too high too early, but I would like for us to at least get back to semistate.”

Greenwood Christian Cougars

Coach: Sean Branch

Last season: Third at PAAC meet, eighth at Franklin Sectional

Key returnees: Andrew Cruse, senior; Owen Harder and Caleb Parson, juniors; Lucas Miller, sophomore

Top newcomers: Max Johnson, senior; Carter Pierce, freshman

Outlook: Harder placed 39th at sectional and advanced to regional as an individual. That experience will help the Cougars during practices and meets alike. “On paper, we looked stronger last year, but I feel will be better by the end of this season than we were at the end of last year,” Branch said. “I believe Owen Harder could be a semistate qualifier. He has a work ethic that is just second to none.”

Indian Creek Braves

Coach: Brady Devine

Last season: Eighth at WIC meet, seventh at Franklin Sectional.

Key returnees: Jackson Fenton, Chris Lister and Jack Mitchell, seniors; Jose Giron and Connor Siefers, juniors, Sebastian Oskins and E.J. Woodke, sophomores

Top newcomer: Ryder Marshall, sophomore

Outlook: Five of the top six Braves runners at sectional last season are back, led by Lister, who was 26th, and Siefers, who was 34th. “I think it’s good because we have eight boys who are really going to be vying for a varsity spot,” Devine said. “We’re actually deeper than we’ve been in the past.”

Whiteland Warriors

Coach: Gerry Emerson

Last season: Third at Mid-State Conference and Johnson County meets, third at Franklin Sectional, fourth at regional and 17th at Shelbyville Semistate.

Key returnees: Rohit Dubb, David Fox, Jaden Hawkins and Will Jefferson, seniors; Gavin Likens, Michael Perkins, Zach Sell and Ashton Spoonamore, juniors.

Top newcomer: Matthew Nino, freshman

Outlook: Jefferson’s offseason work has the senior primed to be among the state’s top runners this season. Spoonamore and Perkins look to finish most races near the front after placing 16th and 24th, respectively, at sectional. “We got a lot of thirds last season as a team, and I’m hoping we can turn those into seconds and even some firsts,” Emerson said. “The sky is the limit for Will with the way he’s training and running. We’re going to take every meet one at a time and hopefully stay healthy.”

[sc:pullout-text-end]